MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. -- The experiences that Love Harenstam went through a year ago took the 19-year-old to the depths of both ends of the extreme.

There were plenty of highs and certainly the lows, from becoming a gold medal-winning goalie for his country (Sweden) at the World Junior Championship to finding a way to get on the winning side with his club team (Sodertalje SK of HockeyAllsvenskan), also in his home country.

Internationally, it was an incredible experience for the goaltender and sixth-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft by the St. Louis Blues. Winning gold for Sweden in Minnesota was just the pinnacle that also included being part of Sweden's World Championship squad (although he didn't play).

But things didn't start that way because after getting the call-up from Sodertalje's U20 Nationell side when he went 2-0-0 with a 1.92 goals-against average and .915 save percentage, the winning didn't match up to the sparkling numbers.

Sodertalje's HockeyAllsvenskan side couldn't score goals and the winning was scarce Harenstam's terrific ability to keep it in games.

"We had a tough start to the season as a team," Harenstam said last month at the Blues' development camp. "We were in the bottom of the table before the world juniors. I think I came in and did a pretty good job but we just couldn't get the wins. We lost like 2-1, 1-0 almost every game and we kind of turned it around before I went to the world juniors and then when I came back after, we had a strong pair of games and ended up going all the way to the semifinals. We changed the year pretty quick. It was a good experience for me to not just come into a team that was playing well, I came into a team when they struggled and I needed to play good. I felt like I could do it in the tough times as well."

He most certainly did. Despite a 14-18-0 record for the club side, Harenstam had a superb 1.81 GAA and .920 save percentage in 32 regular-season games, then was 6-5-0 with a 2.36 GAA and .918 save percentage in the playoffs that was fueled, like Harenstam said, of a second-half run.

Players take into account their own personal success, certainly, but they also take into account the team success and whether it's in unison or not. And there were large swaths of last season where that wasn't the case.

Nevertheless, the Stockholm native was named as the HockeyAllsvenskan goalie and rookie of the year.

"I think if I would have looked at how the season's been before the year and you could see how well it was going to go, I would have been really happy," Harenstam said. "I never would have believed that the season could have gone as well as it did. I won the goalie of the year and rookie of the year. I'm just really happy and excited for one more year there and hopefully we can go even further."

The momentum started to build when Harenstam shouldered Sweden's goaltending duties at the WJC, culminated with a 4-2 win over Adam Jiricek (the Blues' 2024 first round pick) and Czechia in the gold medal game.

Harenstam was a perfect 6-0-0 with a 2.43 GAA and .911 save percentage at the Worlds.

"It meant so much," Harenstam said. "It was a huge honor to just go there. You just hope to get to play some games and it went exactly how I wanted. I'm just really happy and glad to get to experience that.

"We always dreamed of winning the gold medal, especially when we lost the gold medal game in the Under-18s the year before. You come in and try to do everything you can. We knew we had a good team. Just kept on winning and felt like we could do it. Everybody tried to play their best and we did. Just happy that we could win the gold there."

But put it this way: this is another goalie in the organization, which already has Jordan Binnington and Joel Hofer currently at the top that also drafted Russian goalie Vladimir Proskurin in the fourth round in 2026 and traded for Marcus Gidlof in the Brayden Schenn trade with the New York Islanders last season, that is taking a similar path to the one Hofer took when he was going through the ranks. Hofer was also a gold medal-winning goalie for Canada in 2020.

"I just want to continue to get better and play with confidence, and I think I was able to do that last year," Harenstam said. "Those experiences are important for my growth. Nothing comes easy and it helped me understand that you can prosper with hard work."

Harenstam and the Blues organization felt it was best to continue his growth and development this season at Sodertalje, and the player said he is on board with that, and then let things fall into place the following year.

"We had a little talk both with the Swedish (club) and with the St. Louis Blues," Harenstam said. "We talked a little and we both came up that it was the best plan was for me to stay at least one more year, especially considering where I'm at now. I really like it there. Me and the coaching staff and the teammates, I really connected with all of them and I feel lucky to be in a great place to even develop more the next year. I'm excited to get going one more year."

As for what the 6-foot-1, 196-pound goalie wants to improve on?

"I felt like this (past) season, I've become even quicker, more active hands and I just want to develop it even more," he said. "Always reading the pass on my feet if I can and keeping my stance pretty tight, not getting too wide. All the things like to keep on pushing my game even further next year."

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